Bad Mix – Hip-Tow lesson

Was just looking at at the last of my Gin and Tonic and thought….I wonder what a splash of Cointreau would taste like in there. The answer is not very good.

Earlier….
When I was coming back from work I stopped by the boat club to see if anyone was down there. Nobody was, but I did see my dad moored off Bill’s Island. I also noticed that the inflatable raft was still in with the dinghies but in need of air……a plan was born.

I drove back to the house. Threw a 12-pack and a bunch of ice into a cooler. Grabbed the air pump for the inflatable and launched the canoe with my supplies. I paddled out in the canoe to meet my dad who was moored on the “saff-tee” mooring off Bills Island. The plan was to be a hero and arrive with a 12-pack of ice-cold beer and hang out there for a while. However, when I rounded the point I realized he had already left the mooring to go back to the boat club. Since I was already out there I figured I would paddle over to the club (long paddle into the wind). This would have to substitute for my excercise, no running today.

Getting closer to the club I realized that he was getting ready to leave.

“You THIRSTY?” I yelled. Of course he was. I tied up my canoe to the boat club dock next to Tresta, cracked two beers and handed one to him. Now properly equiped with a cold beer I began pumping up the inflatable which I would be using for the return trip. When it was drum-tight we slid it into the water and I side-paddled it over to the waiting canoe. We tied the canoe the inflatable hip-tow style (side-by-side), I started the engine on the inflatable and I was off.

I couldn’t turn! We had tied the canoe too far to the front of the inflatable and even with the engine turned 90-degrees to the side I couldn’t turn one degree. After re-adjusting the lines I regained control of the two and was able to motor out of the morring field and made my slow downwind journy across the pond back home.